Susan's Grand Adventure--125 Reef Build

[Susan Edwards]

thanks @NY_Caveman I think the early coraline growth makes me forget how new the tank really is. I might move the 2 sps corals back to the frag tank to see if I can save them. It has older live rock and hydra 26 lights. I'll have to stick maybe to lps and softies for a bit

I'm dosing vinegar to both tanks for nitrates. Trying to decide if I want to make my own nopox or go straight vinegar. My other tank, I increased the nopox and added vinegar and nitrates dropped to 20 (from a consistant 80-160). Nopox is almost gone now.

 

[Susan Edwards]

New fish doing well, going to do a bigger water change for nitrates and start dosing my diy nopox. New fish and some cuc arrive tomorrow, along with some blackworms to feed. going to get next batch of brine started tonight

 

[Sherman]

Hi Susan. Very detail build . Tagging along

 

[Susan Edwards]

thanks @angminsoon that's probably a good way to say I be long winded . can you tell I'm a writer/storyteller? It's fun and enlightening to go back and reread your journals sometimes. You forget. when I started my newest tank, the 125 (build link in sig line) I couldn't believe how "newbie" I was with this tank. In a year, I'll probably shake my head still and wonder what I was thinking.

 

[Susan Edwards]

new batch of fish in QT
2 Carberryi Anthias. 1 DOA (credit already from LA--love their no hassle warranty)
3 Lyretail Anthias

The 2 carberryi's are out and about and eating. The 3 lyretails still in hid mode though 1 is exploring a bit--at the bottom and always near something. More a peeking out from cover. Did see the 3 of them doing a bunch of moving around when I fed last so think they too were eating.

Replacement Carberryi arriving wed. Had to order 2 dispar anthias for my other tank--have 1 of 2 doing major hiding in cave. Thought he'd died earlier this month-hadn't seen it since around the 10-12th. Found it yesterday. Might be one of them is turning male. Suggested it might be the one hiding, or could be the one out and about. So will get 2 more to ease things there. So will have 8 anthias in QT.

 

[Susan Edwards]

So here we go again! 1 lyretail gone out of three. One has white stringy poo. The other is still in hide mode. I won't be surprised to lose all three. The other one is eating but not out in the open swimming with the carberryi's. So discouraging. I added prazipro to treat prophetically (is that the word?)/in case. then saw the poo so added metro and focus to the food. Not very hopeful. Might consider getting some api general cure which has both already. I also have paraguard and may to a treatment of that. But my comfort level is not to treat unless there is a problem. Obviously there is. Not sure what the issue with the one that died. The last batch of lyretails also did not make it. I didn't treat as I couldn't see anything wrong and they were acting healthy until suddenly in hide mode, not eating, and then dead in a few hours.

I have the replacement carberryi anthias coming on Wed. If the lyretails don't make it, might just have them send a total of 3 for a school of Carberryi's. Have 2 dispar coming for the other tank. Could also do another three of them. We'll see this weekend what survives. Very frustrating.

 

[Bronc]

Sorry to hear this. I have the same problems. My fish rarely make it out of QT (but I’m still so glad I quarantine!). I bought 5 three stripe damsels and all were fine until about 3 weeks in - then they all died within a week.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Bummer on your issues as well @Bronc It is so dang frustrating. At least with LA if they go within 14 days I get credit so I'm not out money, just time and emotional efforts.

 

[Susan Edwards]

my four fish in to add to those already in QT. I have
3 Carberryi's, 1 replacement today
2 Lyretails, 1 male today replacement
2 Dispars for the 66 gal tank to go with the 2 in there. 1 in hide mode for a couple weeks. Got 2 more to see if that brings it out. Maybe going male?

Last week, it took all week to really get all 4 fish out and about. The Car's were out, but the Lyre's not so much. Just starting to really come out. 1 had white poo so metro in food and prazi in tank.

With 4 more, it seems like everyone is out but the male lyretail. Safety in numbers? Going to have to really pay attention to which ones are the dispars as they are all similar in coloring.

Let's see how many survive the next 4 weeks!
7 out of 8

 

[Susan Edwards]

all eight out and eating. I think anthias do better with a larger group--they feel safer. Big difference in behavior between 4 and 8. I do have a slight delima though. The 2 dispars go into my 66 gal but it is going to be tough to tell these all apart as they are all juvenile or female, except one male. I think I know which are the 2 female lytretails--they have a yellow stripe across upper mouth. Will have to see what the dispars and carberryi differences are. Tails might be different in the dispars. Worse comes to worse, I dump them all in the 125 and get 2 more dispars for the 66, along with some others types of fish in the next batch!

all 8 including male lyretail

 

[Susan Edwards]

Wow, a month since I was last here! It's been crazy. Got back the rights to 11 of my books originally published in mass market paperback in the 90's & early 2000's. Pub went out of business in 2010 so sold rights to an e-publisher. They reverted the rights so have been trying to get the books back out. Had to put that on hold to find a lawyer to file a civil harassment restraining order against my neighbor for harassing our dogs. If they bark 6 seconds at 11pm, or 15 seconds at 2 pm, he calls the cops and animal control! Literally. I have voice recordings now of every time dogs go outside. This week, he's been trying to entice dogs to bark when he has dispatch on the line. I heard him when I went out with dogs saying: "Can you hear them barking now?" I called the police and filed a complaint. So we meet the lawyer this week, and much of my fish stuff is suffering as I'm having to do a bark spreadsheet and other notes for our meeting iwth the lawyer this week. But here's an update.

Out of the last batch of 8 anthias, 2 batches of 4 a week apart, only 2 survived. I lost one just outside the warrenty period. 1 lyretail and 1 carberri survived and are doing great in the display. Have a new batch of fish in QT. Ordered 4 dispars for the 66 gal (2 from last batch didn't make it), and 6 lemon chromis for the 125 gal tank. What I got were 6 staghorn chromis though. Got credit. Not very happy about it. They are right now all gray, no yellow. LA said I could keep or donate. Unfortanately there is no where to donate so will have to keep. I have one yellow tail damsel in the 125 so maybe the staghorns will so in that tank or I might add them to the 66 gal but that might be too many fish for that tank (2 clowns, 2 blue/green chromis, 1 dispar, 1 scooter, 1 mandarin). I could split 3 and 3. And if all the dispars survive, split them 2 and 2. We'll see what survives the month first! I did add another hob filter with an uv light in it so hoping 2 hob's will keep water quality better. Will do a water change tomorrow. Maybe every 3-4 days. My qt survival rate is very poor.

Corals are so-so. The galaxea, torch and softies doing great. SPS's not so good. In the 125 I have
galexea
torch
some zoas
cloves
green stars
ricordias
micromussas--not doing great. Not sure if I need more light on them and need to lower the lights

In the coral frag tank I hve
2 challices. 1 wasn't doing well so put it in there. It now has new growth and is surviving. The new one is plating out. Will keep here until the 125 is more mature.
lobo is looking really nice. It will go to the 125
gonipora--so so
I think the acros are pretty much gone
denrophillia I got from my daughter's tank. Might move my sun corals to this tank for easier feeding.

Fish in the 125 include: 2 clowns, 1 yellow tail damsel, 1 red head wrasse, 1 gold head sleeper goby, 1 lyretail anthias, 1 carberri anthias, 2 royal grammas

 

[Susan Edwards]

Life had been nuts. Dealing with neighbor harassment bad enough we hired a lawyer to file a civil harassment restraining order. The man agitates my dogs and then calls the police. As our dogs are not problem barkers, evidenced by the fact that I have to record them EVERY time I put them out back, both animal control and police know this. But if they bark, literally, 6 seconds at 11pm or any other time, he calls the police. Caught him on phone to dispatch, agitating dogs and saying "do you hear them now". Of course, dogs weren't barking as I went out there and could hear him! So cops not citing us, animal control not citing us, so now he called code enforcement for 2 sheds along the shared fence line. 1 has been there since the original owner in the 90's. The other we added in 2005. He may have even helped us put it up. So now I have to pay a contractor to move the shed 30 feet down along the fence. Which he will still hate but it will be legal....

So with all this going on, and my writing which is suffering, the tanks have all suffered! Did water change on the 125 finally. Need to hook up the doser after hubby puts in a shelf. The staghorn damsels all survived qt. 3 of 4 anthias did not. They were doing so well, and within 2 days, 3 gone. The qt tank had 2 hob filters, light sand, and hiding spots. I've come to the conclusion that anthias, and even wrasse are just too fragile or sensitive for qt. I'm putting in another order this week. 2 more anthias for the 66 gal tank. They will go right in. 2 lyretails for this tank. They will go right in. An algae blenny. As they have thick slime coats and the qt doesn't have enough algae, it too will go right in. the 2 or 3 tangs I order will go to qt.

LA even gave me a partial credit on the 3 that didn't make it after the 14 days. Just past. I'm still bummed that the yellow chromis were not shipped. I got the staghorns instead. And so far, they have no yellow on them at all. Rather a blah fish but they are active so that's something...

Hoping to get back to getting some corals. I've lost a few. Not sure if lack of lighting, or young tank, or parameters. Probably a bit of all, and I've been neglectful this last month.

Oh, lost one fish who went carpet surfing when I was cleaning the glass. Was bummed. Loved the ruby head wrasse. Will replace it later.

My coral qt tank is overrun with pods. I should add a mandarin in there. Or another fish to add to the coral food. Am thinking of a ruby dragonet and mandarin. Even if I hve to eventually have to supplement. Also discovered a bunch of bristle worms in the pod hotel trap (which isn't very good). Added them to the sump of the 125. Need an aiptasia eating fish or get some nudi's for both tanks.

Okay, I'm updated!

 

[P-Dub]

Oh man, sucky neighbors really suck. I'm so sorry you have to deal with that.

The tanks will have their ups and downs. Gotta roll with it. Hang tough. I gotta get with updating my build thread as well. Alas, life gets in the way.

 

[Susan Edwards]

REBOOT 2020

If you read above, you'll see that 2018 was an almost impossible year. I ended my tale of woes at around September. October my mother who lived with us started getting sick. In November, she died pretty suddenly (colon cancer spread to lungs and brain). The blessing is she didn't know. Went into the ER, had a seizure and never recovered. Gone in hours. So the rest of 2018 was dealing with that. In Dec/Jan 2019 we had the master bedroom painted (her room/studio and she was a smoker). The painters used a strong primer for smoke.

What I didn't know: the stuff smelled so bad you couldn't breathe. I shut the door, put a blanket across bottom and shut all doors and windows. The next day, both my tanks, and the coral frag tank were white. I did water changes immediately. It was a few months before I noticed at least half my fish in each tank were missing, and my corals were dead or dying.

I realized the white cloud was a bacteria bloom caused by dead fish caused by the primer! I was heartbroken. Some of those fish I'd had since the beginning. Then before I could start the process of rebooting, my dau decided to get married in Croatia--a destination wedding. That meant no money for new fish or corals and a solid 6 months of wedding stuff. I also started a part time retail job just to be out of the house some as my mother lived with me for 16 years.

I also took down the red sea 66 gal, and the 40 gal frag tank and the qt tank. I didn't want a pet sitter dealing with topping off so many tanks! I added more rock to the 125 and to the Refug

So Sept. we were in Europe, came home, holidays for retail hit and my poor tank has suffered horribly. Algae issues, can't get alkalinity where it needs to be and there are only some mushrooms, zoas ricordias and leathers. All super blah. Even the remaining fish are pretty blah.

So 2020 is time to reboot. Right now I'm not all that excited over the tank but that's because it's in an awful state.

Water change, use that water for the new qt tank (40 gal frag tank). Pull what algae I can, clean sand etc. Test and dose. And I'll get some clean up crew ordered.

Thinking I'll get my tangs to see if that helps with the algae and another sand sifter. I'll upload some pics after I get a water change done and clean the glass. Ashamed to put a pic up now!

 

[P-Dub]

You got this, Susan!

 

[najer]

Good luck with the reboot.

 

[dieselkeeper]

Welcome back. Slow and steady.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Life surely comes at us all and we are all subject to life.

My prayers are with you and your family.

Tank will rebound with your attention. Takes time. Hang in there!

 

[Susan Edwards]

You got this, Susan!

Thanks.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Okay, here are some before and after pictures. I spent several hours doing clean up. Goal is to spend at least 15 min each day doing some more: soak a powerhead, pull more algae, etc. Tested after a water change

Nitrate Red....
alk 11.7 very happy as it has been more like 6. I'll test again in a couple days to be sure
mg 1320
ca 340. A bit low. All in all, not bad numbers.
ran out of phos test.

Ordered more pods, some macro algae and stuff from algae barn. Their refugium kit and some extra macro to help with nutrients. Also need to change my rodi filters. Have 1 so will do tomorrow. getting 2ppm so that doesn't help with algae

Also cleaned the 40 gal qt and half filled. Need to put the skimmer and pump back in and finish that one tomorrow. Used tank water, some live rock and a couple pieces not alive now. Dry.

going to lfs tomorrow. Need sand sifter and maybe some tangs to maybe attack algae. And more clean up crew. Have lots of pods coming. from person here on r2r as well.

Before cleanning today

After several hours